“Saying an accident is due to human failing is about as helpful as saying that a fall is due to gravity. It is true but it does not lead to constructive action”. Some of the classic, and well-known, wisdom from Kletz (source: An Engineer’s View of Human Error). Extracts: · The whole ‘most accidents are due… Continue reading Kletz: Accidents due to human error is about as useful as saying falls are due to gravity
Year: 2025
Safe as 34: The failure of critical controls in construction
How reliable are the critical controls within construction? Which critical controls fail, and how? Today’s article is Selleck, R., Hassall, M., & Cattani, M. (2022). Determining the reliability of critical controls in construction projects. Safety, 8(3), 64. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2hkc0OmL5QTlcseIHJgN8P?si=eylRnvw3QrKPNSsy0YjkZA Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e34-the-failure-of-critical-controls-in-construction/id1819811788?i=1000726762389 Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it useful then… Continue reading Safe as 34: The failure of critical controls in construction
Safe As week in review: Ineffectiveness of individual mental health interventions / Fatigue risk via defences in depth / AI LLMs are BS’ing you
Safe As covered this week: 31: Do individual mental health interventions work? Maybe not. Do individual level mental health interventions, like personal resilience training, yoga, fruit bowls and training actually improve measures of mental health? This study suggests not. Using survey data from >46k UK workers, it was found that workers who participated in individual-level… Continue reading Safe As week in review: Ineffectiveness of individual mental health interventions / Fatigue risk via defences in depth / AI LLMs are BS’ing you
Trevor Kletz and how the past isn’t a good proxy for future safety, or “We’ve done it this way for 20 years so it must be safe”
The maths of bad luck: A banger myth from Trevor Kletz in ‘Dispelling Chemical Engineering Myths’, showing the statistical basis that the past isn’t a good measure of future ‘safety’. I’ll cover more myths in later posts. Here Kletz challenges the statement “We’ve done it this way for 20 years without an accident, so it… Continue reading Trevor Kletz and how the past isn’t a good proxy for future safety, or “We’ve done it this way for 20 years so it must be safe”
‘Keep It Complex’: perspectives on risk, uncertainty and ambiguity
When uncertainty and ignorance is abound on risk, should we ‘keep it simple’? Or keep it complex by debating multiple perspectives and embracing uncertainty and ambiguity? Extracts: · “When knowledge is uncertain, experts should avoid pressures to simplify their advice. Render decision-makers accountable for decisions” · “Expert advice is often thought most useful to policy when it… Continue reading ‘Keep It Complex’: perspectives on risk, uncertainty and ambiguity
Practice With Less AI Makes Perfect: Partially Automated AI During Training Leads to Better Worker Motivation, Engagement, and Skill Acquisition
How does AI use in training improve, or impact, skill acquisition? This study manipulated training protocols with varying levels of AI decision-making automation, among 102 participants during a quality control task. Extracts: · “Partial automation led to the most positive outcomes” · “Participants who were trained with the fully automated version of the AIEDS had a significantly… Continue reading Practice With Less AI Makes Perfect: Partially Automated AI During Training Leads to Better Worker Motivation, Engagement, and Skill Acquisition
Learning from normal work in complex sociotechnical system—Case in midstream operation
This article discussed learning from normal work, via semi-structured episodic interviews. It’s open access, so not a summary. Extracts: · Briefly discussing historical safety progression, “safety progress was achieved by expanding existing rules to cover more potential failures, and safety failures resulted from gaps in rules or their lack of application” · “However, no procedure, no matter… Continue reading Learning from normal work in complex sociotechnical system—Case in midstream operation
Safe As 33: Is ChatGPT bullsh** you? How Large Language models aim to be convincing rather than truthful
Large Language Models, like ChatGPT have amazing capabilities. But are their responses, aiming to be convincing human text, more indicative of BS? That is, responses that are indifferent to the truth? If they are, what are the practical implications? Today’s paper is: Hicks, M. T., Humphries, J., & Slater, J. (2024). ChatGPT is bullshit. Ethics and… Continue reading Safe As 33: Is ChatGPT bullsh** you? How Large Language models aim to be convincing rather than truthful
The Contribution of Permits-To-Work for Safety
This discussed permit-to-work (PTW) systems for enabling, or hindering, daily work. Many interviews and site observations were undertaken. Extracts: · “The PTW follows the growing demand for modern control in organizations, which has spread through industries and has increased bureaucracy, as pointed out by Dekker” · “This leads to “super-specified” bureaucratic processes, which are misdirected and generally… Continue reading The Contribution of Permits-To-Work for Safety
Effect of Fatigue Training on Safety, Fatigue, and Sleep in Emergency Medical Services Personnel and Other Shift Workers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
This meta-analysis and systematic review investigated research on the impact of fatigue training on fatigue-related outcomes. Target groups were emergency medical services personnel and other similar shift work groups. Extracts: · Overall they found “fatigue training improved safety and health outcomes in shift workers” · Findings from two studies were “favorable for patient safety,” showing a “decrease… Continue reading Effect of Fatigue Training on Safety, Fatigue, and Sleep in Emergency Medical Services Personnel and Other Shift Workers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
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